People

The Rt Hon the Lord Janvrin GCB GCVO QSO PC was appointed to the British Library Board by HM The Queen on 1 January 2017.

Robin Janvrin is an independent Crossbench member of the House of Lords and the Prime Minister’s Trade Envoy to Turkey. He is also an Honorary Fellow of Brasenose College, Oxford and Visiting Fellow of the Oxford Centre for Corporate Reputation, Said Business School.

Lord Janvrin served in the Royal Navy between 1964 and 1975 and subsequently joined the Diplomatic Service with postings abroad at NATO Brussels and New Delhi. In 1987 he was seconded to Buckingham Palace as Press Secretary to The Queen, becoming Assistant Private Secretary, then Deputy Private Secretary to The Queen from 1990. In 1999 he took over as Private Secretary to The Queen, effectively her closest adviser and chief of staff with responsibilities for advising on all aspects of The Queen’s public life. He was also concurrently Keeper of the Royal Archives, a Trustee of the Royal Collection Trust and Chairman of The Queen’s Silver Jubilee Trust. He stepped down in September 2007.

Lord Janvrin was Chairman of the Royal Foundation of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry from 2010-2016, and a Trustee of the National Portrait Gallery 2008-2016 and of the Gurkha Welfare Trust 2010-2016.

Robin is Deputy Chairman of the British Library and chairs the Remuneration Committee. He also chairs the Library's Fundraising Advisory Group